Wet Hare (1962)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by David Detiege
Animation by Keith Darling, Ted Bonnicksen, Warren Batchelder, George Grandpre’
Music by Milt Franklyn
Bugs Bunny lives at the base of a waterfall that he uses as a shower. When the French-Canadian roughneck Blacque Jacque Shellacque dams the river and declares ownership of the water source, Bugs engages in an ongoing effort to destroy Jacque’s dams and let the water flow.
Compressed Hare (1961)
Directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble
Story by Dave Detiege
Animation by Bob Bransford, Ken Harris, Richard Thompson, Tom Ray, Harry Love
Music by Milt Franklyn
“Compressed Hare” is one of the stronger Bugs Bunny cartoons to emerge in the early 1960s, with inventive gags and stylish animation that harkened back to the series’ halcyon days in the late 1940s and early 1950s. There is even a sampling of Raymond Scott’s instrumental “Powerhouse” that had been missing from the cartoon soundtracks for too many years.
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The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961)
Directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ken Harris, Tom Ray, Richard Thompson, Bob Bransford, David R. Green
Music by Milt Franklyn
Bugs Bunny burrows underground on a trip to Palm Springs, with Daffy Duck following him. Somehow, they wind up in the Himalayas. Daffy is exasperated by Bugs’ poor sense of direction and decides to burrow his way home, but winds up encountering the Abominable Snowman. This oversized creature is strong but cheerfully dimwitted, and he is too eager to have a pet rabbit that he wants to name George.
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Notable for introducing the first new characters in the brief (1967-69) era of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts cartoons, “Cool Cat” debuted the eponymous feline and his predator, the bumbling Briton Col. Rimfire, in a variation of the Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd hunting romps. The only difference here is that Cool Cat is blissfully unaware that Col. Rimfire is pursuing him. Even more peculiar, the feline star mistakes the colonel’s vehicle – a metallic pink elephant on wheels – for being a real pachyderm and he has a running one-way conversation with the machine.
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Lighter Than Hare (1960)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Friz Freleng
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn
From a human resources perspective, one must admire Yosemite Sam’s occupational versatility. Originally conceived as a desperado, he later worked as a pirate ship captain, a prison guard, a Hessian mercenary, a sheik, a medieval knight, and in “Lighter Than Hare” he is an extraterrestrial invader. Nice work if you can get it, eh?
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From Hare to Heir (1960)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Friz Freleng
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn
In Merry Olde England, things are anything but merry at Bedlam Manor where Sam, Duke of Yosemite, discovers he is penniless after his uncle, the King, discontinued his allowance. Sam takes out his anger on his accountant-servant by slamming the man’s nose in a large book.
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For every Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck that becomes a pop culture icon, there are countless cartoon characters that get tested in one or a few shorts before being dropped for lacking versatility and viability. Conrad the Cat, a yellow bipedal feline created by Chuck Jones, is an example of a character that was jettisoned after failing to immediately click on the screen.
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